"Ur-Fascism" by Umberto Eco

The New York Review of BooksJune 22,1995UR-FASCISMBy Umberto Ecohttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/1856In 1942, at the age of ten, Ireceived the First Provincial Award of LudiJuveniles (avoluntary,compulsory competition for young Italian Fascists –that is, for everyyoungItalian). I elaborated with rhetorical skill on thesubject"Should wedie for the glory ofMussolini and the immortal destinyof Italy?" Myanswer was positive. I was a smart boy.I spent two ofmyearly yearsamong the SS, Fascists, Republicans, and partisansshootingatoneanother, and I learned how to dodge bullets. It wasgood exercise.InApril 1945, the partisans took over in Milan. Two dayslater they arrived inthesmalltown where I was living at the time.It was a moment of joy.The mainsquare wascrowded with peoplesinging and waving flags,calling in loudvoices for Mimo, thepartisan leader of that area. Aformer maresciallo oftheCarabinieri, Mimo joined thesupporters ofGeneral Badoglio, Mussolini'ssuccessor, and lost a leg during one of thefirst clashes withMussolini'sremaining forces. Mimo showed up on thebalcony of thecity hall, pale,leaning on his crutch, and with one handtried tocalm the crowd. I waswaiting for his speech because my wholechildhoodhad been marked by thegreat historicspeeches of Mussolini,whosemost significant passages wememorized in school. Silence.Mimospoke in a hoarse voice, barely audible.He said: "Citizens, friends.Afterso manypainful sacrifices . . . here weare. Glory to thosewho havefallen for freedom." And thatwas it. He wentback inside.The crowdyelled, the partisans raised their guns and firedfestivevolleys. We kidshurried to pick up the shells, precious items, butIhad alsolearnedthat freedom of speech means freedom from rhetoric.Afew days later Isaw the first American soldiers. They wereAfrican Americans.ThefirstYankee I met was a black man, Joseph,who introduced me to themarvels ofDickTracy and Li'l Abner. Hiscomic books were brightly coloredandsmelled good.One of theofficers (Major or Captain Muddy) was a guestin the villa of a family whosetwo daughters were my schoolmates. I methimin their garden wheresome ladies,surrounding Captain Muddy, talkedintentative French.Captain Muddy knew someFrench, too. My first imageofAmericanliberators was thus – after so many palefaces inblackshirts –thatof a cultivated black man in a yellow-green uniform saying:"Oui,mercibeaucoup, Madame, moi aussi j'aime le champagne . . ."Unfortunatelythere wasno champagne, but Captain Muddy gave me my firstpiece ofWrigley'sSpearmint and Istarted chewing all day long. Atnight Iput my wad in awater glass, so it would be freshfor the nextday.2In May weheard that the war was over. Peace gave me acurioussensation. I had beentold that permanent warfare was the normalcondition for a young Italian. Inthe followingmonths I discoveredthatthe Resistance was not only a localphenomenon but a Europeanone. Ilearned new, exciting words like réseau,maquis, arméesecrète, RoteKapelle,Warsaw ghetto. I saw the firstphotographs ofthe Holocaust,thus understanding themeaning before knowingtheword. I realized whatwe were liberated from.In my country today thereare people who arewondering if the Resistance had a realmilitaryimpact onthe course ofthe war. For my generation this question isirrelevant: weimmediatelyunderstood the moral and psychologicalmeaning of theResistance. For us itwas a point of pride to know thatwe Europeans did notwait passivelyfor liberation. Andfor theyoung Americans who were payingwith theirblood for our restoredfreedom itmeant something to know thatbehindthe firing linesthere were Europeans paying theirown debt inadvance.In my countrytoday there are those who are saying that the myth oftheResistance wasaCommunist lie. It is true that the Communists exploitedthe Resistanceas if it were theirpersonal property, since they playedaprimerole in it; but I remember partisans withkerchiefs of differentcolors.Sticking close to the radio, I spent my nights – the windowsclosed,theblackout making the small space around the set a loneluminous halo –listening to the messages sent by the Voice of London to thepartisans.Theywere crypticand poetic at the same time (The sun alsorises,The roses willbloom) and most of themwere "messaggi per laFranchi." Somebody whisperedto me that Franchi was the leaderofthemost powerful clandestine networkin northwestern Italy, a man oflegendarycourage. Franchi became my hero.Franchi (whose real name wasEdgardoSogno) was amonarchist, so stronglyanti-Communist thatafter the warhe joined very right-winggroups, and wascharged withcollaborating ina project for a reactionary coup d'état. Whocares?Sogno still remains thedream hero of my childhood. Liberation was acommondeed for people ofdifferent colors.In my country todaythereare some who say that theWar of Liberation was a tragicperiod of division,and that all we needis national reconciliation.The memory of thoseterrible years should berepressed, refoulée,verdrängt. But Verdrängungcauses neurosis.Ifreconciliation meanscompassion and respect for allthose who fought theirown war ingood faith, to forgive does not mean toforget. I can evenadmitthat Eichmann sincerelybelieved in his mission,but I cannot say,"OK, come back and do it again." We are hereto rememberwhathappenedand solemnly say that "They" must not do it again.But who areThey?If we still think of the totalitarian governments that ruledEuropebefore the SecondWorld War we can easily say that it would bedifficultforthem to reappear in the sameform in differenthistoricalcircumstances. IfMussolini's fascism was based upon the ideaof acharismatic ruler, oncorporatism, on the utopia of theImperial Fate ofRome, on animperialisticwill to conquer newterritories, on anexacerbated nationalism, on the idealof an entirenation regimented inblack shirts, on the rejection ofparliamentarydemocracy, onanti-Semitism, then I have no difficulty inacknowledging that today theItalian Alleanza Nazionale, born from thepostwar Fascist Party, MSI,and certainly aright-wing party, has bynowvery little to do with theold fascism. In the same vein, eventhough I ammuch concerned about thevarious Nazi-like movementsthat have arisen hereand there in Europe,including Russia, I do notthink that Nazism, in itsoriginal form, isabout to reappear as anationwide movement.Nevertheless, even thoughpolitical regimes can beoverthrown, andideologies can becriticizedand disowned, behind aregime and its ideologythere is always a way ofthinking and feeling, agroup of cultural habits,of obscure instinctsand unfathomable3drives. Is there still anotherghost stalkingEurope (not to speakof other parts of theworld)?Ionesco once saidthat "only wordscount and the rest is mere chattering."Linguistichabits are frequentlyimportant symptoms of underlying feelings.Thus itis worth askingwhy not only the Resistance but the Second World Warwasgenerallydefined throughoutthe world as a struggle against fascism. Ifyoureread Hemingway's For Whom the BellTolls you will discover thatRobertJordan identifies his enemies with Fascists, even whenhe thinksoftheSpanish Falangists. And for FDR, "The victory of the American peopleandtheir allies will be a victory against fascism and the dead hand ofdespotism itrepresents."During World War II, the Americans whotookpart in theSpanish war were called"premature anti-fascists" –meaningthat fightingagainst Hitler in the Forties was a moraldutyfor everygood American, butfighting against Franco too early, in theThirties,smelled sour because itwas mainly done by Communists andotherleftists. . . . Why wasanexpression like fascist pig used byAmericanradicals thirty years later torefer to a copwho did notapprove oftheir smoking habits? Why didn't theysay: Cagoulard pig,Falangist pig,Ustashe pig, Quisling pig, Nazi pig?Mein Kampf is amanifesto of a completepolitical program. Nazism had atheory ofracism and of the Aryan chosenpeople, a precise notion ofdegenerate art, entarteteKunst, aphilosophy of the will to powerand ofthe Ubermensch. Nazism was decidedlyanti-Christian andneo-pagan, whileStalin's Diamat (the officialversion of SovietMarxism) was blatantlymaterialistic and atheistic. Ifbytotalitarianism one means aregime thatsubordinates every act of theindividual to the state and to its ideology, thenboth Nazism andStalinismwere true totalitarian regimes.Italianfascism wascertainly adictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, notbecauseof itsmildness but rather because of the philosophicalweakness ofits ideology.Contraryto common opinion, fascism inItaly had no specialphilosophy.The article on fascismsigned byMussolini in the TreccaniEncyclopediawas written or basically inspiredbyGiovanni Gentile, but itreflecteda late-Hegelian notion of theAbsolute and Ethical Statewhich wasneverfully realized byMussolini. Mussolini did not have any philosophy: hehadonly rhetoric.He was a militant atheist at the beginning and latersignedtheConvention with the Church and welcomed the bishops who blessedtheFascist pennants.In his early anticlerical years, according to a likelylegend, he once asked God, in order toprove His existence, to strikehimdown on the spot. Later, Mussolini always cited thename of Godinhisspeeches, and did not mind being called the Man of Providence.Italianfascism was the first right-wing dictatorship that took over aEuropean country,and all similar movements later found a sort ofarchetypein Mussolini'sregime. Italianfascism was the first toestablish amilitary liturgy, afolklore, even a way of dressing –far moreinfluential, with its blackshirts, than Armani, Benetton,or Versace wouldeverbe. It was only in theThirties that fascistmovements appeared,with Mosley, in GreatBritain, andin Latvia,Estonia, Lithuania,Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece,Yugoslavia, Spain, Portugal,Norway, and even in South America. It wasItalian fascismthat convincedmany European liberal leaders thatthe newregime was carrying outinteresting social reform, and that itwas providinga mildlyrevolutionary alternative tothe Communistthreat.Nevertheless,historical priority does not seem to me asufficient reason toexplain whythe word fascism became a synecdoche,that is, a word that couldbe usedfor differenttotalitarianmovements. This is not because fascismcontained in itself, so to speak intheir quintessential state, all theelements of any later form oftotalitarianism. On thecontrary, fascismhadno quintessence.Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of4differentphilosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.Can oneconceiveof a truly totalitarian movement that was able tocombinemonarchy with revolution, theRoyal Army with Mussolini'spersonalmilizia,the grant of privileges to the Church withstateeducationextollingviolence, absolute state control with a free market? TheFascistParty wasborn boasting that it brought a revolutionary neworder; but it was financed bythe most conservative among the landownerswhoexpected from it acounter-revolution.At its beginning fascismwasrepublican. Yet it survivedfor twenty years proclaiming itsloyalty tothe royal family, while the Duce(the unchallengedMaximal Leader) wasarmin-arm with the King, to whom healsooffered the title of Emperor.But when the Kingfired Mussolini in1943, the party reappeared twomonths later, with German support,under thestandard of a "social"republic, recycling its oldrevolutionary script, nowenriched with almostJacobin overtones.There was only a single Naziarchitecture and asingle Nazi art. Ifthe Nazi architect wasAlbert Speer,there was nomore room for Miesvan der Rohe. Similarly, under Stalin'srule, if Lamarckwas right therewas no room for Darwin. In Italy there werecertainlyfascist architectsbut close to their pseudo-Coliseums were manynewbuildings inspiredby the modern rationalism of Gropius.There wasno fascist Zhdanovsetting a strictly cultural line. In Italy there were twoimportant artawards. The Premio Cremona was controlled by a fanatical anduncultivatedFascist, Roberto Farinacci, who encouraged art aspropaganda.(I canremember paintingswith such titles as "Listening byRadio to theDuce's Speech" or "States of Mind Createdby Fascism.") ThePremioBergamowas sponsored by the cultivated and reasonablytolerantFascist GiuseppeBottai, who protected both the concept of art for art'ssake andthe manykinds of avant-garde art that had been banned ascorrupt and crypto-Communistin Germany.The national poet wasD'Annunzio, a dandy who in Germany orin Russia would havebeen senttothe firing squad. He was appointed as thebard of the regime becauseof hisnationalism and his cult of heroism –which were in factabundantlymixed up withinfluences of French fin desiècledecadence.TakeFuturism. One might think it would have beenconsidered an instance ofentarteteKunst, along with Expressionism,Cubism,and Surrealism. Butthe early Italian Futuristswerenationalist; theyfavored Italianparticipation in the First World Warfor aestheticreasons;theycelebrated speed, violence, and risk,all of which somehow seemed toconnectwith the fascist cult of youth.While fascism identified itself withtheRomanEmpire andrediscovered rural traditions, Marinetti (whoproclaimed that a car was morebeautiful than the Victory of Samothrace,andwanted to kill eventhe moonlight) wasnevertheless appointed as amember ofthe ItalianAcademy, which treated moonlightwith greatrespect.Many ofthefuture partisans and of the future intellectuals ofthe Communist Party wereeducated by the GUF, the fascist universitystudents' association, whichwassupposed tobe the cradle of the newfascist culture. Theseclubs became asort of intellectual meltingpotwhere new ideascirculated without any realideological control. It was notthat themen of the party were tolerant ofradical thinking, but few ofthemhad the intellectualequipment to controlit.During thosetwenty years, the poetry of Montale and other writersassociated withthegroup called the Ermetici was a reaction to thebombastic style oftheregime, and thesepoets were allowed to develop theirliteraryprotestfrom within what was seen as theirivory tower. The mood ofthe Ermeticipoets was exactly the reverse of the fascist cult ofoptimismandheroism. The regime tolerated their blatant, eventhough socially5imperceptible, dissent because the Fascists simply didnot pay attention tosuch arcanelanguage.All this does not meanthat Italian fascismwastolerant. Gramsci was put in prison untilhis death; the oppositionleadersGiacomo Matteotti and the brothersRosselli wereassassinated;the freepress was abolished, the laborunions were dismantled, andpoliticaldissenters were confined on remoteislands. Legislative powerbecame a merefiction andthe executivepower (which controlled thejudiciary as well asthe mass media)directlyissued new laws, amongthem laws calling forpreservationof the race (the formal Italiangesture of support for whatbecame theHolocaust).The contradictorypicture I describe was not theresultof tolerance but of political andideological discombobulation. Butitwas a rigid discombobulation, astructuredconfusion. Fascism wasphilosophically out of joint, butemotionally it was firmlyfastenedto somearchetypal foundations.So we come to my second point. There wasonly oneNazism. We cannotlabel Franco'shyper-Catholic Falangismas Nazism, sinceNazism isfundamentally pagan, polytheistic,andanti-Christian. But thefascistgame can be played in many forms, andthe name of thegame does notchange. The notion of fascism is notunlike Wittgenstein's notion of agame.A game can be either competitiveor not, it can require somespecial skill ornone,it can or cannotinvolve money. Games aredifferent activities thatdisplay only some"family resemblance," asWittgenstein put it. Consider thefollowingsequence:1 2 3 4abcbcd cde defSuppose there is aseriesof political groups in which groupone is characterized by thefeaturesabc, group two by the features bcd, andso on. Group two is similartogroup onesince they have two features incommon; for the same reasonsthree is similar to two andfour is similarto three. Notice thatthree isalso similar to one (they have in common thefeature c). Themost curiouscase is presented by four, obviouslysimilar to three andtwo,but with nofeature in common with one.However, owing to theuninterrupted series ofdecreasing similaritiesbetween one and four,there remains, by a sort ofillusorytransitivity,a familyresemblance between four and one.Fascism became an all-purposetermbecause one can eliminate from a fascistregime oneor morefeatures, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.Take awayimperialism fromfascism and you still have Franco and Salazar.Takeaway colonialism and you still havethe Balkan fascism of the Ustashes.Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism(which never muchfascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celticmythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) andyou haveone of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola.Butinspite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list offeaturesthat aretypical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism,orEternalFascism. These features cannotbe organized into asystem; manyof themcontradict each other, and are also typical ofother kinds ofdespotism orfanaticism. But it is enough that one ofthem be present toallow fascism tocoagulate around it.1. Thefirst feature ofUr-Fascism is the cult oftradition. Traditionalism isof course mucholder than fascism. Not only wasit typical ofcounter-revolutionaryCatholic thought afterthe Frenchrevolution,but it was born in thelate Hellenistic era, as a reaction toclassicalGreek rationalism. Inthe Mediterranean basin, people of differentreligions (most of themindulgently accepted by the Roman Pantheon)starteddreaming of arevelation received atthe dawn of humanhistory. Thisrevelation,according to the traditionalist mystique, had6remained fora longtime concealed under the veil of forgottenlanguages – in Egyptianhieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls ofthe little knownreligions of Asia.This new culture had to besyncretistic. Syncretismisnot only, as the dictionary says,"thecombination of different formsofbelief or practice"; such acombination musttolerate contradictions.Eachof the originalmessages contains a silver of wisdom, andwheneverthey seemto saydifferent or incompatible things it is only because all arealluding,allegorically, to the same primeval truth.As aconsequence, therecan be noadvancement of learning. Truth has been alreadyspelled outonce and forall, and we can only keep interpreting itsobscure message.One has only tolook at the syllabus of every fascistmovement tofind the majortraditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis wasnourished bytraditionalist,syncretistic,occult elements. The mostinfluentialtheoretical source ofthe theories of the new Italianright,JuliusEvola, merged the Holy Grailwith The Protocols of the Elders ofZion,alchemy with the Holy Roman andGermanic Empire. The very factthatthe Italian right,in order to show itsopen-mindedness, recentlybroadened its syllabus to include works byDeMaistre, Guenon, andGramsci, is a blatant proof of syncretism.If youbrowse in theshelvesthat, in American bookstores, are labeled as New Age, youcanfind thereeven Saint Augustine who, as far as I know, was not afascist. Butcombining Saint Augustine and Stonehenge – that is asymptom ofUr-Fascism.2. Traditionalism implies the rejection ofmodernism. BothFascists and Nazis worshipedtechnology, whiletraditionalist thinkersusually reject it as a negation of traditionalspiritual values.However,even though Nazism was proud of itsindustrial achievements,its praise ofmodernism was only the surface ofan ideology based uponBlood and Earth(Blut und Boden). The rejectionof the modern world wasdisguised as arebuttal of thecapitalisticway of life, but it mainlyconcerned therejection of the Spirit of 1789(and of1776, of course).The Enlightenment,the Age of Reason, isseen as the beginning ofmoderndepravity. In thissense Ur-Fascismcan be defined as irrationalism.3.Irrationalism alsodepends onthe cult of action for action's sake. Actionbeingbeautiful initself, it must be taken before, or without, anyprevious reflection.Thinkingisa form of emasculation. Thereforeculture is suspectinsofar as it isidentified with criticalattitudes.Distrust of theintellectual world hasalways been a symptom of Ur-Fascism,fromGoering's alleged statement ("WhenI hear talk of culture I reachfor mygun") to thefrequent use of suchexpressions as "degenerateintellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs,""universities are a nest ofreds." The official Fascist intellectuals weremainly engaged inattacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsiafor havingbetrayed traditionalvalues.4. No syncretistic faith canwithstandanalytical criticism. The critical spirit makesdistinctions, andtodistinguish is a sign of modernism. In modernculture the scientificcommunity praises disagreement as a way to improveknowledge. ForUr-Fascism,disagreement is treason.5. Besides,disagreement is asignof diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks forconsensus byexploiting andexacerbating the natural fear ofdifference. The first appealof a fascistor prematurely fascistmovement is an appeal against theintruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racistby definition.6. Ur-Fascismderives from individualor socialfrustration. That is why one of the mosttypical features of thehistorical fascism was the appeal to afrustrated middle class, aclasssuffering from an economic crisis orfeelings of politicalhumiliation, andfrightenedby the pressure oflower social groups.In our time, when the old"proletarians" are7becoming pettybourgeois (and the lumpen arelargely excluded from thepoliticalscene),the fascism of tomorrow willfind its audience in thisnewmajority.7. To people who feel deprived of aclear social identity,Ur-Fascism says that their onlyprivilege is the mostcommon one, tobeborn in the same country. This is the origin ofnationalism. Besides,theonly ones who can provide an identity to thenation are itsenemies.Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology thereis theobsession with aplot,possibly an international one. The followersmust feel besieged.The easiest way to solvethe plot is the appealtoxenophobia. But theplot must also come from the inside: Jewsareusuallythe best targetbecause they have the advantage of being at thesame timeinside andoutside. In the U.S., a prominent instance of theplot obsessionis to befoundin Pat Robertson's The New WorldOrder, but, as we haverecentlyseen, there are manyothers.8.The followers must feelhumiliatedby the ostentatious wealth and forceof theirenemies. When I wasa boyI was taught to think ofEnglishmen as the five-meal people.They atemore frequently than thepoor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and helpeachother through asecret web of mutual assistance. However, the followersmustbeconvinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by acontinuousshifting ofrhetorical focus, the enemies are at the sametime toostrongand too weak. Fascistgovernments are condemned to losewarsbecause theyare constitutionally incapable ofobjectivelyevaluating the force of theenemy.9. For Ur-Fascism there is nostruggle for life but, rather, life islived for struggle. Thuspacifismis trafficking with the enemy. It is badbecause life ispermanent warfare.This,however, brings about an Armageddoncomplex. Since enemies have tobe defeated, theremust be a finalbattle,after which the movement willhave control of the world. Butsucha "finalsolution" implies a furtherera of peace, a GoldenAge, which contradicts theprinciple of permanentwar. No fascist leaderhas ever succeeded in solvingthispredicament.10. Elitism is atypical aspect of any reactionaryideology, insofar asit isfundamentallyaristocratic, and aristocratic andmilitaristicelitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak.Ur-Fascism canonlyadvocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best peopleofthe world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, everycitizen can(or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannotbepatricians withoutplebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing thathispowerwas not delegated to himdemocratically but was conqueredbyforce, alsoknows that his force is based upon theweakness ofthemasses; they are soweak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since thegroupis hierarchicallyorganized (according to a military model), everysubordinate leaderdespiseshis own underlings, and each of themdespises his inferiors. This reinforces thesense of mass elitism.11.In such a perspective everybody is educatedto become a hero. Ineverymythology thehero is an exceptional being, butin Ur-Fascistideology,heroism is the norm. This cult ofheroism isstrictlylinked with thecult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of theFalangists was Vivala Muerte (in English it should be translated as"LongLive Death!").Innon-fascist societies, the lay public istold that deathis unpleasant butmust be facedwith dignity;believers are told that it isthe painfulway to reach a supernaturalhappiness.By contrast, theUr-Fascist herocraves heroic death,advertised as the best reward for aheroic life. TheUr-Fascist hero isimpatient to die. In his impatience, hemore frequentlysends otherpeople to death.12. Since both permanentwar andheroism aredifficult games to play, the Ur-Fascisttransfers hiswillto powerto sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (whichimpliesbothdisdain for women and intolerance and condemnation ofnonstandardsexual8habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since evensex isadifficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play withweapons– doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.13. Ur-Fascism isbasedupon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say.In ademocracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens intheirentirety have apolitical impact only from a quantitativepoint ofview –one follows the decisions of themajority. ForUr-Fascism,however,individuals as individuals have no rights, and thePeople isconceived as aquality, a monolithic entity expressing theCommon Will.Sinceno largequantity of human beings can have acommon will, theLeader pretends to betheir interpreter. Having losttheir power ofdelegation, citizens do notact; they are onlycalledon to play therole of the People. Thus the Peopleis only a theatricalfiction. Tohave a good instance of qualitativepopulism we no longerneed thePiazza Venezia inRome or the NurembergStadium. There isin our futurea TV or Internet populism, inwhich theemotionalresponse of a selectedgroup of citizens can be presented andacceptedas the Voice of the People.Because of its qualitative populismUr-Fascism must be against "rotten"parliamentarygovernments. Oneof thefirst sentences uttered byMussolini in the Italian parliamentwas"I couldhave transformed thisdeaf and gloomy place into abivouac for my maniples" –"maniples" being asubdivision of thetraditional Roman legion. As a matterof fact, heimmediately foundbetter housing for his maniples, but a littlelater heliquidated theparliament. Wherever a politician casts doubt on thelegitimacy of aparliament because itno longer represents the Voice ofthePeople,we can smell Ur-Fascism.14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak.Newspeakwas invented by Orwell, in 1984, as theofficial language ofIngsoc,EnglishSocialism. But elements of Ur-Fascism are commontodifferent forms ofdictatorship. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooksmadeuse of animpoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, inorder tolimit theinstruments forcomplex and critical reasoning.But we must beready toidentify other kinds ofNewspeak, even ifthey take theapparently innocentform of a popular talk show.Onthe morning of July27, 1943, I was toldthat, according to radioreports, fascism hadcollapsed and Mussolini wasunder arrest. When mymother sent me out tobuy thenewspaper, I saw thatthe papers atthe nearest newsstand haddifferent titles. Moreover,afterseeingthe headlines, I realized thateach newspaper said different things. Iboughtone of them, blindly, andread a message on the first pagesigned byfive or six politicalparties– among them the DemocraziaCristiana, theCommunist Party, the SocialistParty,the Partitod'Azione, and the LiberalParty.Until then, Ihad believed thatthere was a single party in everycountry and that inItaly itwasthe Partito Nazionale Fascista. Now I wasdiscovering thatin my countryseveralparties could exist at the same time.Since I wasa cleverboy, I immediately realized thatso many parties couldnot havebeenborn overnight, and they must have existed for sometime asclandestineorganizations.The message on the front celebrated the endofthedictatorship and the return of freedom:freedom of speech, ofpress, ofpolitical association. These words, "freedom,""dictatorship,""liberty," –I now read them for the first time in my life. I was rebornasafreeWestern man by virtue of these new words.We must keepalert,so that thesense of these words will not be forgotten again. Ur-Fascism is stillaround us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be somuch easier, for us,ifthere appeared on the world scene somebodysaying, "I want to reopen Auschwitz,Iwant the Black Shirts toparadeagain in the Italian squares." Life is notthat simple. Ur-Fascism cancome back under the most innocent of disguises.Our dutyis to uncover it9and to point our finger at any of its newinstances – every day,in every part of the world.FranklinRoosevelt'swords of November 4,1938, are worth recalling:"Iventure the challengingstatement that ifAmerican democracy ceasesto move forward as a livingforce, seeking dayand night by peacefulmeans to better the lot of ourcitizens, fascismwill grow instrength in ourland."Freedom andliberation are anunendingtask. Let me finish with a poem by FrancoFortini:Sullaspallettadel ponteLe teste degli impiccatiNell'acqua della fonteLa bavadegli impiccati.Sul lastrico delmercatoLe unghie deifucilatiSull'erba secca del pratoI denti deifucilati.Morderel'aria mordere i sassiLa nostra carne non è piùd'uominiMorderel'aria mordere i sassiIl nostro cuore non è piùd'uomini.Ma nois'è letto negli occhi dei mortiE sulla terrafaremolibertàMal'hanno stretta i pugni dei mortiLa giustiziache si farà.(On thebridge's parapetThe heads of the hangedInthe flowingrivuletThe spittle of the hanged.On the cobbles in themarket-placesThefingernails of those lined up and shotOn the drygrass in the openspacesThe broken teeth of those lined up and shot.Biting the air,biting the stonesOur flesh is no longer humanBiting the air,bitingthe stonesOur hearts are no longerhuman.But we have readinto theeyes of the deadAnd shallbring freedom on the earthButclenched tightin the fists of thedeadLies the justice to be served.)– poemtranslated by StephenSartarelli* * *


-----------------------------------------------
See also:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004/11/holiday-break.html